# MOOSE Crossing Opens!

Amy Bruckman (asb@media.mit.edu)
Thu, 23 May 1996 13:37:25 PDT

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    I thought you all might be interested in hearing: MOOSE Crossing is open
    for business!  MOOSE Crossing is a MUD designed to give kids 9-13 a meaningful
    context for reading, writing, and computer programming.

    MOOSE Crossing includes a new language (MOOSE) written with in-db parsing on
    top of MOO.  Here's an example of a MOOSE program written by a 12-year-old
    girl:

    --> look at feedme
    A tiny little baby penguin which always seems to be hungry!
    Feedme is Jalen's penguin.

    --> feed feedme eggs on toast
    You feed Feedme a soft boiled egg on toast.
    Feedme polietly picks up the toast with Feedme's left flipper and nibbles the end like so.
    Feedme says, 'Thank you ever so much in offering me this delightful meal. I would be ever so obliged if you would be so kind as to give me a cup of tea to wash it down.'
    [a moment later]
    Feedme says, 'Thanks alot!'. (You didn't give Feedme any tea!)

    Here's the program:

    on feed this eggs on toast
      set my ishungry to 1
      tell context "You feed " + my name + " a soft boiled egg on toast."
      announce_all_but context context's name + " feeds " + my name + " a soft boiled egg on buttered toast."
      emote "polietly picks up the toast with " + my name + "'s left flipper and nibbles the end like so."
      announce_all_but context "After chewing, " + my name + " thanks " + context's name + "."
      tell context my name + " says, 'Thank you ever so much in offering me this delightful meal. I would be ever so obliged if you would be so kind as to give me a cup of tea to wash it down.'"
      set my last_feed_time to time
      set my askfortea to 1
      fork 10
        if my askfortea is 1
          tell context my name + " says, 'Thanks alot!'. (You didn't give " + my name + " any tea!)"
          set my askfortea to 0
        endif
      endfork
    end

    To use MOOSE, you need a Mac with a direct Internet (ethernet, ppp, etc)
    connection.  Lots more info is at:

    	    http://asb.www.media.mit.edu/people/asb/moose-crossing

    Big people are welcome, but have to write an essay to join.  Apologies in
    advance for the fact that the registration process is a bit involved.

    -- Amy, asb@media.mit.edu